Allyson Schwartz

(1948 - )

U.S. Representative Allyson Y. Schwartz was born in
Queens, Queens County, N.Y., on October 3, 1948. She graduated from
the Calhoun School, New York, N.Y., in 1966 and went on for a B.A. at
Simmons College. She received an M.S.W. from Bryn Mawr College in 1972.

Schwartz served as a health care administrator and
was a member of the Pennsylvania state senate from 1991-2004. She was
an unsuccessful candidate for the United States Senate in 2000. In 2004,
she was elected to the House of Representatives from the 13th Congressional
district of Pennsylvania, which includes parts of Northeast Philadelphia
and Montgomery County. In 2014 she decided not to run for re-election, but to run for Governor of Pennsylvania against incumbent Governor Tom Corbett. She was defeated by Tom Wolf in the Democratic primary.

Schwartz serves on the Budget Committee and the Transportation
and Infrastructure Committee, where she serves on two subcommittees:
Highways, Transit and Pipelines and Water Resources and Environment.

Schwartz first ran for elected office in 1990 when
she was elected to Pennsylvania State Senate’s 4th district seat.
During her four terms in the state Senate, Schwartz was known as leader
for working families. Schwarz served as the Democratic chair of the
Senate Education Committee from 1995-2004 where she was a vocal advocate
for public education.

While serving in the Pennsylvania State Senate, Schwartz
led the effort to create the Children’s Health Insurance Program
(CHIP). The Pennsylvania CHIP program has been nationally heralded as
a model program to cover children with health insurance. Today in Pennsylvania
150,000 children of middle and working class families have access to
health insurance because of CHIP.

Schwartz resides in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania with her
husband David, a Philadelphia cardiologist. They are the parents of
two sons, Daniel and Jordan.